Financial Comparison: Xylem (XYL) vs. Its Competitors

Xylem (NYSE:XYL) is one of 39 publicly-traded companies in the “Waste Removal Svcs” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Xylem to similar companies based on the strength of its earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Xylem and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Xylem	10.54%	10.12%	6.62%
Xylem Competitors	-97.71%	-458.29%	-3.74%

Risk & Volatility

Xylem has a beta of 1.13, suggesting that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Xylem’s peers have a beta of 0.63, suggesting that their average share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

88.0% of Xylem shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.0% of shares of all “Waste Removal Svcs” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Xylem shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 12.3% of shares of all “Waste Removal Svcs” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Xylem and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Xylem	0	3	6	0	2.67
Xylem Competitors	323	1116	1891	129	2.53

Xylem presently has a consensus price target of $143.71, suggesting a potential upside of 15.47%. As a group, “Waste Removal Svcs” companies have a potential upside of 11.44%. Given Xylem’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Xylem is more favorable than its peers.

Dividends

Xylem pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Xylem pays out 43.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Waste Removal Svcs” companies pay a dividend yield of 1.1% and pay out 50.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Xylem has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Xylem is clearly a better dividend stock than its peers, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Xylem and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Xylem	$8.56 billion	$890.00 million	33.46
Xylem Competitors	$3.35 billion	$263.08 million	31.29

Xylem has higher revenue and earnings than its peers. Xylem is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Xylem beats its peers on 13 of the 15 factors compared.

About Xylem

Xylem Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and servicing of engineered products and solutions worldwide. It operates through four segments: Water Infrastructure, Applied Water, Measurement & Control Solutions, and Integrated Solutions and Services. The Water Infrastructure segment offers products, including water, storm water, and wastewater pumps; controls and systems; filtration, disinfection, and biological treatment equipment; and mobile dewatering equipment and rental services under the ADI, Flygt, Godwin, Sanitaire, Magneto, Neptune Benson, Ionpure, Leopold, Wedeco, and Xylem Vue brands. The Applied Water segment provides pumps, valves, heat exchangers, controls, and dispensing equipment systems under the Goulds Water Technology, Bell & Gossett, A-C Fire Pump, Standard Xchange, Lowara, Jabsco, Xylem Vue, and Flojet brands. The Measurement & Control Solutions segment offers smart meters, networked communication devices, data analytics, test equipment, controls, sensor devices, software and managed services, and critical infrastructure services; and software and services, including cloud-based analytics, remote monitoring and data management, leak detection, condition assessment, asset management, and pressure monitoring solutions, as well as testing equipment. This segment sells its products under the Pure Technologies, Sensus, Smith Blair, WTW, Xylem Vue, and YSI brands. The Integrated Solutions and Services segment provides maintenance services, mobile services, digital outsourced solutions, wastewater systems, environmental remediation, odor and corrosion control, filtration, reverse osmosis, ion exchange, and deionization under Aquapro, WaterOne, and Ion Pure brands. Xylem Inc. was formerly known as ITT WCO, Inc. and changed its name to Xylem Inc. in May 2011. Xylem Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Washington, District of Columbia.